For many Indigenous people living in Victoria, ‘Health’ does not simply mean the physical well-being of an individual but refers to the social, emotional and cultural well-being of the whole community. For Aboriginal people, this is seen in terms of the whole of life view, incorporating the cyclical concept of life-death-life and the relationship to the land.

Health care services should strive to achieve the state where every individual is able to achieve their full potential as human beings and thus bring about the total well-being of their communities. (National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation)

The Unity Foundation puts this principle into action by approaching Victorian Indigenous people’s issues through the principles of Understanding, Nurturing, Identity, Togetherness and Youth.  

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The Association of Sudanese Women is a collective of recently arrived women from Sudan who have come together to offer support and to be supported in their resettlement in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. The women plan to work together to empower their community and to create the means to live proudly and independently. The group plays a vital role in addressing and relieving the suffering caused as a result of the trauma of the women’s experiences in Sudan.

• Click here to read the full Eastweb PDF Factsheet 

The Liberian Women's Craft Group is an initiative of a group of Liberian women living in the Brimbank area who approached the New Hope Foundation for support in establishing their own craft and culture group. They saw that the group would provide an opportunity to meet with one another on a regular basis, thereby addressing and helping to alleviate the social isolation that newly arrived refugee women often experience.

• Click here to read the full Eastweb PDF Fastsheet
  

The New Hope FOundation is central in coordinating the Homework Club which is a homework and mentor group for refugee children in a safe learning environment, matching refugee children with community volunteers who will provide a positive role in mentoring and assisting the participants with homework. NHF consulted with many refugee community groups, and discovered a gap in the provision of supported learning opportunities for refugee students.

• Click here to read the full Eastweb PDF Fastsheet.

The Longhorns Basketball Club provides sixty 8 – 18 year-old newly-arrived East African young people with the opportunity to meet together with other young people; to play basketball and develop their skills. The Club is led by a dedicated team of volunteers who are themselves, newly arrived to Australia, and for the main part, under 25 years old. 

The Longhorns Club demonstrates the clear pathways for youth participation, community participation and youth leadership made possible through community sport.  The Club has been seen to be so successful, that the Club’s president – 25 year-old Manyang Berberi - has been asked to develop a similar club in Melbourne’s south-east. 

The EastWeb Fund has provided funding for the Club to hire a training space for two hours a week, and is continuing to provide assistance for the Club to access additional funding to become a part of the Sunshine Basketball Association.

• Click here to read the Eastweb PDF Factsheet

Field of Interest:           Refugee &Asylum Seeker
Grant Recipient:           Western Region Health Centre Ltd
Project:                        Bilingual Nutrition Educators Project – Cooking Demonstrations and Market Tours
MCF Sub-fund:             Eastweb Fund

Many newly-arrived Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD)  populations in Australia experience food insecurity as they are faced with an unfamiliar food supply and new challenges in identifying, storing and preparing local fruits and vegetables. Food security is defined as the ability to access safe, nutritious, culturally appropriate food from non-emergency sources.

Fruit and vegetable consumption among CALD communities is lower than among the wider Australian population, which is a contributing factor to the observed high rates of obesity and cardiovascular disease in this population.

Field of Interest:           Indigenous
Grant Recipient:           Brotherhood of St Laurence
Project:                        Sir Doug Nicholls Fellowship for Indigenous leadership
MCF Sub-fund:             Sir Doug Nicholls Fellowship Fund

The Sir Douglas Nicholls Fellowship for Indigenous Leadership was established in 2003 as a vehicle for positive change in Victoria 's Indigenous community. Through the provision of financial support, networking opportunities and professional development to appointed Fellows and emerging leaders, the Fellowship empowers Indigenous leaders to focus their drive and energy in areas of importance identified by Victoria 's Indigenous community.

Fostering Indigenous leadership is vital to the ongoing survival and growth of Indigenous communities in Victoria . By supporting exceptional people and developing their leadership capacity, the Fellowship provides lasting benefits to the Indigenous community in Victoria .

The Fellowship recognises the legacy of Sir Douglas Nicholls and his example of outstanding leadership. The Fellowship enables today's and tomorrow's leaders to pursue their visions for the well-being and cultural identity of Victoria 's Indigenous communities. The Fellowship also promotes the benefits of mutual understanding and genuine partnerships between mainstream and Indigenous communities.

Daphne Yarram of Sale was awarded the 2006 Fellowship and this will enable her to continue her work with Indigenous communities in Gippsland, to further develop her leadership skills and to work towards a better deal for Aboriginal communities in Victoria . Daphne joins Paul Briggs of Shepparton as a Fellow for a five year term.

Field of Interest:           Overseas aid & development
Grant Recipient:           International Women’s Development agency (IWDA)
Project:                        Leadership Training for Young Burmese Refugee Women
MCF Sub-fund:             Social Justice Fund

IWDA works in the Asia-Pacific region in direct partnership with local organisations of women who live and work in the communities. For this project, IWDA supports local partner, the Karen Women’s Organisation, to run the Karen Young Women’s Leadership School .

The school provides education opportunities to 22 refugee women a year from the Karen ethnic minority in Burma from the 9 refugee camps along the Thai/Burma border. 

Since 1988, close to a million Burmese have fled their country to neighbouring countries and border camps, where they live in extreme poverty and oppression with no understanding or protection of their rights.

The Karen Young Women’s Leadership School is creating opportunities for women to improve their lives and communities.  Over 13 months’ residential education, students gain skills in leadership, advocacy and community development, leading to positions in community governance and human rights.

65 young women have graduated from the KYWL School since its inception seven years ago. They have taken up leadership positions in Karen refugee camps, Karen Women’s Organisation, and are raising awareness of the plight of the Karen internationally.

For further information about IWDA and their work go to www.iwda.org.au

Field of Interest:           Medical Health & Research
Grant Recipient:           Orygen Research Centre
Project:                        The Family Anthology DVD
MCF Sub-fund:             Sally Oatley Memorial Fund, Alf and Meg Steele Fund, Social Justice Fund

Isolation, uncertainty, fear, embarrassment, alienation, disbelief … any number of words can describe the bewilderment of a family dealing with the mental illness of a young person. Through a number of focus groups, Orygen identified that families and carers want to understand how the psychiatric system works for them and what information is readily available.

While respectful of expert opinion, they really wish to hear from people who have confronted the same issues and have common experiences. To address this need, Orygen has developed a DVD of family anthologies that document the first hand accounts of families and carers experience of caring fro a young person with a developing or first episode of mental illness.

Funds provided by 3 of MCF’s sub funds have enabled the production of this DVD entitled Where There’s Hope: Family Experiences of Living With Youth Mental Illness.

Field of Interest:           Environment
Grant Recipient:           Cape York Aboriginal Charitable Trust/Balkanu Development Corporation
Project:                        Traditional Knowledge Recording Project - Kuku-Thaypan Fire Research Project
MCF Sub-fund:             rmg Fund        

Building pathways for community development through revival of traditional (indigenous) knowledge within contemporary society.

The Traditional Knowledge Recording Project (TRKP) aims to support Cape York traditional owners to record and preserve their traditional knowledge and then to demonstrate its application to a wide variety of contemporary environmental, social and economic problems.

It does this by providing recording equipment and training, inserting and cataloguing recorded data into a database, providing editing and production facilities and marketing completed products.